Monthly Archives: February 2016

Deaf cannot serve in the military in USA;in Israel, Shira Kochavi, a young deaf woman,has become the second lieutenant in the CombatIntelligence Collection Corps. She said“The army is a career for me.” Israelwould not allow her to serve in themilitary but she fought back and wasable to enlist. Her picture is at:

Deaf model Nyle DiMarco, the final winner of thenow-closed America’s Next Top Model TV program,is at it again. He has been selected to be oneof the dancers at the “Dancing With the Stars”TV program. He, however, is not the first deafdancer on that program – this honor belongs toMarlee Matlin few years ago.

— a Jughead update

DeafDigest has mentioned several times thatthe world-famous Archie comics is evolvinginto a new TV series. And that Jughead,Archie’s ex Best Friend and now Arch-enemyis deaf. There were big hopes that a deafactor would play the deaf Jughead role.It was not to be. A hearing actor hasbeen selected to play the Deaf Jugheadrole. A big time disappointment!

For years the Daredvil comics have featured a deafheroine (Echo/Maya Lopez) in these action scenes.Lately this comic book publisher is thinking ofmoving up to real movies (just like theseBatman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Hulk movies).If this is the case then we hope a deafactress, not a hearing actress, will playthe Echo role. For a mysterious picture,look at:

Every college has a worry (money, declining enrollment,images of bad behavior among athletes, low academicstandards, enrollment issues, etc). But what isthe #1 worry among all of these collges? It ishow to make the deaf (and disabled) studentshappy and to avoid these ADA discriminationlawsuits. This was the topic in a web postingyesterday.— a deaf feud that began during the Super Bowl

No end to troubles for the Starkey group(Starkey Hearing Technologies and theStarkey Hearing Foundation). The manufacturermade front page news when top officers werefired, accused of financial improprieities,leading to all these lawsuits. And now this– the foundation, during the Super Bowl week,had deaf children fitted on stage during afree hearing aid event. California Associationof the Deaf did not like it, saying deaf childrenwere exploited.

A Deaf Drone flying over our heads? Yes, if two deafentrepreneurs Anthony Mowl and Hector Brual,both of Austin, TX, have their way. They wowed thehearing audience at the International Drone Expocompetition, and have formed Aerial Productions.The goal is to get the company up and running andto show the world what deaf businesses can do. Thepicture of the duo is at:

Many restaurants are guilty of one major ADAviolation! They do not print out the dailyspecials for the benefit of deaf patrons.The waiters do verbally explain the dailyspecials for hearing patrons, but say “nevermind” when serving the deaf patrons. This wasan issue raised by a restaurant critic in aTwin Cities (Minnesota) newspaper.

— a big crisis with one video relay center

Winnepig is coming up soon with their brand newvideo relay center. And there is a big timecrisis – not enough interpreters! How badis the crisis? There is a program atRed River College to train interpreters.But only four or five students graduateper year from that program. And there isa second crisis – almost all of thesestudents are females. If a deaf relayuser prefers a male interpreter, there maybe no one around!

The cosmetics industry is very competitive(L’Oréal, Revlon, Avon, etc). Very difficultmarket to get into. It did not prevent adeaf woman, Paula Durance (Leicester, GreatBritain) from partnering with a hearingwoman to come up with a new brand – Ardere.It is a full line cosmetics range. Paulasaid she wants to make other women feelgood about themselves. A picture ofPaula and her hearing partner is at:

In Swindon, a British city of 210,000 people, a hearing4-year old child was trapped between outside door andinside door in her mother’s apartment. The insidedoor locked by itself and she couldn’t get out, andshe screamed to get help Fortunately, theapartment manager heard it and called the police.The firemen were called to come to rescue her.Deaf mother? She was in the apartment but was notaware of what had happened, and was shocked, andwas crying hard about it.